Oil from tanker threatens Spain, Portugal

Posted: Wednesday, November 20, 2002

The Associated Press

MADRID, Spain (AP) - An oil tanker carrying 20 million gallons of fuel oil broke in two and sank Tuesday in the Atlantic Ocean, threatening a spill nearly twice as big as the Exxon Valdez's and an environmental catastrophe along a scenic Spanish coastline.

The hope was that the oil would sink and harden in waters more than two miles deep before it could inflict disaster and engulf the area's rich fishing grounds. But it has already soiled 125 miles of Spanish coastline, and its highly viscous and toxic load is far bigger than the 10.92 million gallons dumped off Alaska by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

As the Bahamas-flagged tanker Prestige sank, it leaked between 800,000 to 1.02 million gallons of oil, according to government estimates. SMIT, the Dutch salvage company hired to keep the ship afloat, estimated the spillage at 13 percent of its load. Nor was it clear much oil might reach land, or where. Portugal said it was monitoring a slick 22 miles by one-third of a mile.

Shut out of Spanish and Portuguese ports after its hull split in a storm six days ago, the tanker was towed some 150 miles out to sea off the coast of Spain's Galicia region. When it finally capsized and sank crews were already cleaning up Galicia's coast, where an estimated 800,000 gallons of oil has contaminated fisheries, blackened beaches and killed wildlife.

The calamity has highlighted concerns about older, single-hull ships like the 26-year-old Prestige that are due to be phased out by 2015 - and about what Europe should do to keep them safe and inspected in the meantime.

Spain said the ship had not been inspected since 1999, but the ship's Greece-based management company, Universe Maritime Ltd., claimed the vessel underwent an inspection last May.

At stake in Spain's misty, green, northwest corner is a fishing and seafood industry that feeds much of the country.